What time is it?

It's goodgym TIME

At our usual start location of the Glassworks, we met walkers and joggers alike. We gave a great BIG goodgym welcome to our newest member - Mel. Glad that you could make it along.

CROESO

3 cyclists, 5 meeting us there, 2 walkers and 4 runners in total making a good 14 volunteers ready to help the SAMYE foundation once again. It's always a pleasure to return to this charity, one of our originals from the days that we started up in Cardiff.

Today, there was an extra suprise and our mascot for the task - ROSIE.

As per, there was a whiteboard list waiting for us when we arrived, and whilst everyone (mostly Jonathan) were busy with the dog, Michael had a quick walk around with Lorraine to see the big jobs.

On the list for tonight was,

• Hammer a drawer front back on in the Dolma flat.
• Saw the curtain poles to size in the Tara room.
• Clean building 252 - mop the floor, clean the bannisters.
• Put a pick axe together - brand new from the box.
• Sweep under the gazebo and collect all of the leaves and soil that have fallen.
• Weed around the doors in the front.
• move the chair and table in able to turn over the rug in the counciling room.
• Finally - the BIG JOB, dig up the large daisies, lavender, rosemary plants that have spread too much in the back garden.

Plenty to be getting on with, so lets split up and get to it.

David went straight to sorting out the drawer, Jonathan wanted nothing but the saw.

Mel and Neda got gloved up and were after all of the leaves.

Dylan and Rosie got to cleaning those doorways.

Turn around, Michael and Jenny. It was rug time.

Llion and Dylan were on cleaning duties, quietly due to sessions going on.

David then joined Lucy, Darren and Emily for the pick axe session out back. First to break down the roots, so that the spades and forks could be used to try and dig out as much as possible.

There was even a bit of extra time for Jenny & Llion to weed the vegetable beds and find some potatoes.

Before we knew it it was time to down tools and head inside for a treat of home made soup from Lorraine. Will the dog be here next time we visit? You'll have to join us to see....

Two side tables were built for a conservatory

Our second week back with Cwtch Together, helping them with the move around.

6 joggers and 7 walkers, made their ways to the wonderful charity. There was talk of the weekend, where some of us had gone to experience the Butetown festival. The conversations of Xmas also came up, but only for planning of our party, and even our 10th birthday celebrations next May.

Once at the hall we were welcomed by Sarah, back in between her Bon Jovi tours.

Our tasks for the evening, to move the items moved last week into there new store room. A group in the store was sorting items into groups making them easier to find for activities. We had a couple outside, weeding the path and finally, a group washing and drying a couple of boxes of toys.

Time flew by, even Michael lost track whilst helping drying toys. Lucy and Emily took to the Blue Raz dip and lick, ending with their blue tongues and lips.

Smurfs anyone?

Another wonderful task, ending with a quick conversation about Halloween and if our annual fancy dress run could be to Cwtch again - watch this space.
Join us next week for a return to Samye.
Find out about Samye, how we've helped in the past and sign up for next week here

One bag of rubbish collected from the streets of Splott

Our first part of a two part mission, we were called to action for the biggest task at Cwtch Together yet.

But first..... 4 joggers, 2 walking group, 2 cycling and 3 more walking from home. This was our 11 goodgymers for the evening, and you were all welcome and very much needed.

The task at hand, clearing an entire store room.... Sarah (organiser) stop buying things! All items had to be moved out to the main scout hall, where it would sit whilst work was being carried out.

The following task will be moving it to the new store. But back to now. With cans of water (Michael's favourite liquid death) and sweets available, no reason for dips of energy.

But plenty of time to dip and lick.... (see photos for context).

It was a nostalgic trip as we moved things, thinking back to when we were younger and having the fun of playing with toys. There was the need to unscrew fixtures, moving shelving and all of the gardening equipment that we know, oh so well.

Still time to spare....

10 more minutes, Michael called. So outside we went, a bit of quick leaf clearing and bramble / nettle cutting and we were done.

A photo to prove that we were here, and we were off, fueled by the sugar of sweets and pure determination. We will return next week, to move it and ourselves once more.....

Another hot hot evening for the goodgymers of Cardiff. We welcomed our first timer to the mix....

CROESO

Welcome Abdullah, we are very pleased to have you on a task with us tonight.

It was a mixed group of joggers, walkers and cyclists for the journey, but all on the same route direct through the beautiful park and up to the cricket ground changing rooms. The only tap, and in direct sunshine....

So to our task for the evening, to fill the four bowsers (40 litres in each), run them 300m to the Orchard, empty the water into watering cans (some heavy lifting required), rinse and repeat.........

We were also joined by some of the orchard volunteers, some helped us with the watering whilst others went off for some wild seed collecting - some yellow rattle had been spotted so they were on the job to collect as much as possible for use at the orchard this winter to help us keep some of the grass under control so that our wildflower meadows could be expanded.

First job was at the tap where we all gathered, we filled the four bowsers and 6 watering cans and made our way to the Orchard. There were a few water works, some unfortunate drips and a moistened short crotch (sorry Jonathan).....thankfully it's hot enough to dry off fast!

Before we even got started there was time to stop and watch a cluster of dragonflies that were feeding at the orchard, just ask Michael he has a lot of videos of them....

Time to get tasking

Abdullah, Jonathan, Rosie, Darcey & Dylan were all on can duty, and what beautiful cans they were.

Aaron, Michael & Nathan were on bowser patrol, along with one of the orchard volunteers and even the lovely Mel that leads the orchard. In total it was 7 trips to the tap for each bowser = 2.1 km each. Add on the 40 kg of water for each of the 4 trips full, and thats an impressive 160 kg of weight per bowser....

What a workout!

In total we went through 610 litres of water, helping to keep our trees going, which in turn is having an amazing effect on the wildlife in the area. We have seen a noticeable increase in butterflies, moths, and bees. We have had green woodpeckers nesting, seen many a dragonfly and the occasional Jay and Tawny Owl.

It's such a pleasure to see the Community Orchard get stronger and bigger every year.